Office Africa, Special Edition

Get Close to Africa’s Best Place to Hide

26 years on from our creation, Shenton Safaris has undergone a revolution. It began from the core with a look at modernising our logo, a process we began in earnest mid-way through 2016. The original logo was drawn up in 1992 by Derek’s sister Ali, a great job back in the day and one that has served us well. Finding a replacement for our logo was not the simple task we anticipated!

Over the past two and a half years as the logo moved through iteration after iteration, Shenton Safaris continued to evolve in other ways. Derek and Jules designed and built a beautiful renovation for Kaingo, which opened in 2017. In 2018 Mwamba Bush Camp received the final touches, which ensured it absolutely is Africa’s best place to hide!

Our incredible network of photographic hides was designed well ahead of the rest of the safari industry and dates back to our opening in 1992. The hides are continually developing. We’ve added lower, closer levels and designed for better camera angles in order to assist you in getting closer to the action in the safest, most comfortable way possible. We continued our trend of keeping ahead of the curve when we launched Zambia’s first live streaming webcams in 2017 at our Hippo and Mwamba Last Waterhole Hides. These cameras allow anyone around the world to get close to our incredible wildlife, in real time. It’s the next best thing to sitting in the hides themselves.

Over this period our work on the new logo continued painstakingly and unsuccessfully. One and a half years in Jules had thrown her hands up in despair of ever achieving something good enough to match all the other wonderful changes to the camps and the original logo remained.

Derek was very attached to the original logo. Ali had drawn it from images of Goldie the incredible leopard who gave Kaingo (Nyanja for leopard) its name. Goldie was the girl who first stole Derek’s heart giving Shenton Safaris’ guests the most astonishing leopard encounters of their lives. In an email to a friend and designer we’d been working with Derek said:

I would like to attempt once again from my side to condense that 26-year safari into a strong image depicting the leopard spirit (msasu wa kaingo in local language) that has made the camp and business so successful and that has kept me focused nearly my entire adult life.

Years ago I bonded with a female leopard we called Goldie whose territory encompassed the camp. For the first 10 years from 1992 through to the early 2000s she almost became a supernatural icon for me and over the years thousands of guests got to see her up close and to know her character. Basically, I built the name of the camp on her following, which included mini-stardom (for her) in an early BBC film on leopards in Luangwa Valley. Goldie was the most consistent female I had ever known up to that point and was only succeeded by my equally beautiful sapiens wife, Jules, so she has to be recognised!

As with many good things the solution was discovered one afternoon over a sundowner G&T. Derek and Ali had been working through some concept drawings when Jules walked in. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “That’s the pose, the look, the sinuous back! Those spots! “We need to work on that. You’ve done it!”

From that G&T in March this year through until now, that beautiful watercolour of Ali’s was painstakingly worked into a design through the efforts of Derek, and the incredible input and artistic skill of Vic Guhrs, a dear friend and one of Africa’s premier wildlife artists. Though she’d sworn to leave them to it, in the hope of one less voice leading to a swifter resolution, Jules had the odd comment to make along the way as did Jen and Stu our designers. Finally, we arrived…

…only to realise we really needed a single colour render in order to work across the majority of our applications. And so it was back to the drawing board. The challenge: how to make the three-colour watercolour feel come across in a single colour with Matisse-style lines.

And here she is, the Shenton Safaris’ Leopardess. Sitting perfectly poised, waiting to hunt, looking over her shoulder and inviting us to come with her. The suggestive look Goldie used to give Derek, the look that her descendants: Malaika, Chiphadzuwa and Mama Kaingo all still give us today. This new logo perfectly encapsulates the calm, seductive demeanour of the astounding female leopards that surround us at Kaingo and Mwamba Bush Camp.

The birth of our new logo could only fittingly be topped off with the launch of our new website. After a suitably long gestation of 9 months, Ag and Jules are thrilled to share with you the new site. We hope you enjoy it!

We welcome you to join us on safari and follow our leopardess as she invites you to get close.